Thomas J. Bray

In 1919, Bray announced that Republic Steel was in solidarity with two other steel companies, supporting the "open shop", which was a move hostile to union organization and resisting the proposed Steel strike of 1919 by the American Federation of Labor. while making plans for a trip to Washington the following day. This was to have been for Congressional hearings about a project to canalize the local rivers – Beaver, Mahoning and Shenango – so that iron ore could be shipped in cheaply as the local deposits were now exhausted. Bray had been leading this project for four years and work continued after his death, with H.R. 6732 authorizing work by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

He and his wife are interred at Liberty Township, Trumbull County, Ohio in the Belmont Park Cemetery (sometimes called "Belmont Cemetery"). He had been president of the Beaver, Mahoning and Shenango River Improvement Association. was seen as a leading industrial expert and pioneer in the production of steel pipe.